Religion: Extending the Vow

Members of the Society of Jesus are a breed apart, not only as the
biggest and most influential men's order in the Roman Catholic Church
but also as the group with the famed "fourth vow." All Catholic
religious orders require members to take the three age-old oaths of
poverty, chastity and obedience, but the Jesuits have a fourth vow all
their own: special obedience to the Pope. This vow of fealty has become
the focus of the recent struggle by more liberal Jesuits against
conservatives in the Vatican and in the Society. Last week the
delegates to an unusual General Congregation*...